UNIVERSITY SQUARE, BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

URBAN SOLUTION CONTEST FOR THE DESIGN OF THE GROUND UNIVERSITY SQUARE PUBLIC SPACE
In collaboration with Exhibit Arhitectura

Sous les pavés, la plage

A thin, fragile plan, (un)covering a hidden world which we do not know and we do not see, a world from which we have estranged and which we seem to give up with no regrets. The city’s pavement as a horizontal facade, a “fifth facade” with walled windows closing the unseen part of the city, on which one will, maybe, tread more softly. The city looks at us from beneath.

Windows and walls, slabs and earth. Concrete in multiple states (polished, mechanically or chemically treated, precast or poured in-situ). The sensitive surface of the pavement reacts differently: some areas are heated in the wintertime and all the snow melts on them; others sound like empty when stepping on them; above the plenum, the slabs are mounted with open joints and some of the small concrete pieces move slightly when standing on them; from several points water is sprayed to the surface and forms small clouds between the birches.